Female drama teacher who had fling with 16-year-old pupil walks free

A drama teacher has walked free despite being caught having a sexual relationship with a student.

Kelly Burgess sobbed as she was handed a ten-month suspended sentence at Bristol crown court.

The 26-year-old from Newport, South Wales, was banned from teaching and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register.

Her barrister Raymond Tully however insisted: ‘She is not a vamp or a cougar, far from it. She is just a young woman somewhat immature, somewhat mixed up, who fell in love with the wrong young man.’

The fling may have only lasted a matter of months, but in that time Ms Burgess exchanged 12,000 texts with the 16-year-old student, and even had sex with him in a hotel paid for by their school as part of a training weekend.

The relationship came to light when the student told a nurse at a sexual health clinic.